Shattered Lies
by Matthew Moulton
Summary: A darker presentation of the CB universe, it takes place a few years after Movie 2. The story is more mature than cute & cuddly & there aren't always happy endings. Sort of a Care Bears real world kind of deal. I also pimped out their powers x-men style.
1. Chapter 1

It was a sunny day in Care-A-Lot. All the Care Bears were happily playing, working, and relaxing. Well, most of the Care Bears. On a soggy cloud on the outskirts of Care-A-Lot Grumpy Bear sat beneath a rain cloud looking unhappy.

"Grumpy! Grumpy Bear!" A cheery voice sounded from somewhere on a cloud behind him.

"Huh?" said Grumpy bear as he got up to see who it was. He looked around but didn't see anyone on his cloud. Then he looked up and saw Cheer Bear running on one of the clouds above him. Suddenly Cheer tripped and went flying off the cloud and landed right on top of Grumpy, pinning him to the ground.

"OOOFFF!" they exclaimed in unison.

Grumpy opened his eyes and saw Cheer nose to nose with him, giggling. Grumpy felt his face turn a little red and smiled.

"You're so cute, Grumpy Bear," Cheer said sweetly. They both got up and dusted the clouds off them.

"So what did you need?" Grumpy asked.

"Oh, I almost forgot. I wanted to ask if you could watch my flower garden for the next couple of days. I'm going to go on a caring mission with Funshine and I'm worried they might die if I don't have someone to watch over them. So will you do it, Grumpy? PLEASE?"

"Uh…I…yeah, I'll watch over them for you."

"Oh thank you, Grumpy!" And with that she gave him a big hug and a peck on the cheek.

Cheer merrily bounded off to prepare for the caring mission as Grumpy gazed after her with fondness. After she was out of sight, he let out a sigh and looked up to the sky for a bit in deep thought.

* * *

Meanwhile, at Noheart's castle, Beastly was rummaging through a closet, clumsily looking for something.

"Oh, now where did I put that?" he asked himself, digging further into the overstuffed closet. After a bit of struggle and grunting, Beastly finally popped out of the mess. He was holding a peculiar crystal sphere that seemed to give off a bluish glow.

"Here it is!" he exclaimed. "I knew I would find it eventually if I only—" but he was suddenly cut off by Noheart, who screamed, "BEASTLY!!!"

"AAAHHHHH!" cried Beastly as he dropped the sphere.

"Coming, Noheart," he replied tiredly as he looked down at the now shattered crystal sphere.

A few moments later Beastly walked into Noheart's lab and sheepishly asked, "You called boss?"

After giving Beastly a good glare, Noheart said, "Yes, Beastly. I have a few errands I need you to run. Just a few items I'll need you to collect for my spell. This new spell I'm working on will finally help me realize my ultimate dream—to destroy all caring in the world! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!"

Beastly slumped against a cauldron with a bored look on his face. "B, b, but boss, every time you try and get rid of all the caring...well..." Noheart glared at Beastly. "Well, uh, the Care Bears always stop you," Beastly continued.

"Well not this time! This time, it will be different! Now go, Beastly. Get me all the things on this list and don't return until you have them all!"

"Okay, boss, I'm going," the weary Beastly replied.

After Beastly left the castle, Noheart began hurriedly taking out vials of liquid and powder, and began arranging them. "Finally I'll be able to create a spell without that little fleabag botching it up!" With that he began adding the contents of the vials to his cauldron, and shortly after began chanting strange words. "He, he, he...soon, soon I will have the ultimate weapon against those goody little Care Bears!" With that he pulled a strange crystal sphere out from under his cloak. It was much like the one Beastly had broken earlier, only this one had a bright yellow glow. He took the sphere and held it above his head for a moment and then said, "Thunder and lightning, wind and rain, bring forth a creature consumed with pain!" On the last word he thrust the crystal sphere into the cauldron. A violent bang erupted from the cauldron along with a blinding flash of light. After the smoke began to clear a bit, a tormented scream could be heard that seemed to start cracking the stones of the castle. Finally the hideous sound died down and the smoke cleared a bit more. Through the shadows stood Noheart smiling wickedly and in front of him was a bright yellow bear with a lighting flash across his tummy. The bear stood in front of Noheart with a twisted smirk on his face and an evil look in his eyes. Noheart stood there, laughing maniacally, and the bear seemed to be off in a world of his own.

* * *

"This is the way we cross off the list, cross off the list, cross off the list, this is the wa—" Beastly suddenly cut himself off and stared with puzzlement at the list Noheart had given him. "He wants me to get a—that can't be right. How am I supposed to get one of the Care Bears' star buddies?! It's not like I can just show up and say, 'Hey, can I borrow this? Noheart wants to use it in one of his spells.' Oh...this is gonna take some planning." With that, Beastly sat down and started to hatch a plan.

* * *

Meanwhile, back in Care-A-Lot, other trouble was brewing. "I've almost got this thing fixed!" said Brightheart, his head buried in a control box.

"Um, Brightheart, I know I've asked before, but can you tell me again what you're fixing?" asked a bright white Care Bear with a crystal shard symbol on her tummy.

"Again?" replied Brightheart tiredly.

"Well, I know it's all like supposed to bring us here and there, but how does—" The white bear was suddenly cut off as she slipped backwards. Luckily she was able to grab onto a nearby control panel to keep from falling completely; but in her clumsiness she accidentally hit a bunch of buttons, which escalated the situation from bad to worse. First the rainbow rescue beam energized and suddenly three pillars in the room were beamed out and the whole building began to buckle under the weight.

"OH NO!" cried the white bear as Brightheart acted as quick as he could to pull himself out from the control box he was in. He then grabbed the white bear's hand and bolted for the door.

"Whoa..." exclaimed the white bear as Brightheart pulled her out from the building that was almost near collapse. Suddenly she slipped backwards again and fell on top of Brightheart. She looked at him for a second and then shyly said, "I'm sorry."

"No time, Crystal. We've got to get away from here. The whole building is gonna come down," Brightheart said hurriedly. With that they both got safely out of harm's way and several of the other Care Bears rushed over to try to save the building with a stare.

"Oh, I wanna help!" cried Crystal, as she tried to run over to the other bears. But Brightheart didn't hesitate to grab her hand and hold her back.

"Hold up there. I think maybe you've helped enough today," said Brightheart.

"I...I feel so bad. It's all my fault. I'm just not very good at this Care Bear stuff," said Crystal.

"Hey, don't talk like that Crystal. As Playfulheart OFTEN says, accidents happen."

Crystal laughed nervously and then said, "Yeah, but with me, they happen all the time."

* * *

"I've got it!" cried Beastly. "I'll sneak up there, disguise myself as a cloud, steal the star buddy and then I can escape using the rainbow rescue beam before those dumb bears even know what's happened!" Beastly let out an evil snicker and headed off for Care-A-Lot, not knowing that the rainbow rescue beam was temporarily out of commission.

* * *

"Wh...what am I?"

"Why, you're my creation, the newest member of the Noheart family of fiends. You're going to help me get rid of the Care Bears so that I can destroy all caring in the world," replied Noheart.

"Why?" the yellow bear said.

Noheart gave him an evil glare and said, "Because it's what we do...that's why." The bear turned his head to Noheart and his eyes seemed to burn right through the old wizard. "What are you staring at?" asked Noheart.

The bear continued to stare through him and said, "Nothing."

"Well while you're looking at nothing you can open your ears and pay attention; I have your first assignment. We are going to teach those fuzzy little do-gooders a lesson that they won't soon forget!"

"You mean 'I'...I'm going to teach them a lesson," the bear said.

"However you like it, just make sure you do your job and you do it well. Because if you fail me, I won't hesitate to send you back into the nothingness that spawned you!" threatened Noheart. Apparently Noheart had hit a nerve with his last threat, as the bear suddenly focused his eyes on Noheart and a quiet rumble could be heard. Soon the whole castle started shaking. "What are you doing!" screamed Noheart.

"Listen to me very closely: I am not your puppet. I do what I want to do, not what you tell me to do. And right now, I choose to teach YOU a lesson," the bear replied very matter-of-factly. Soon the walls of the castle were cracking and the wind began to pick up, thrashing everything about. Noheart was not pleased at all. But before he could even think of a spell to stop what the bear was doing a giant bolt of lightning flew through the window and struck Noheart's magic amulet. The blast not only fried the amulet but left Noheart sprawled on the floor unconscious. Soon after, the wind died down and the rumbling ceased. "Now...I will have some...fun," said the bear as he started going through all the toppled shelves on the floor, picking up various things here and there and putting them into a bag. "You know...they should have called you Nobrains, instead of Noheart," chuckled the bear as he started his way out of the damaged castle.


	2. Chapter 2

Grumpy stood over Cheer's flowers, happily watering them and humming a little tune. He then realized just how ungrumpy he felt that day and let out a little smile. After a bit he heard a rumbling sound, almost like a cloud quake. Off in the distance he could see a bit of smoke and wondered what was going on. A few minutes later he saw Brightheart coming his way.

"What's going on, Brightheart? It sounded like a cloud quake earlier!" exclaimed Grumpy.

"There was a little accident with the Rainbow Rescue Beam; it started beaming out parts of the building. The whole thing almost collapsed but we were able to stop it and secure the building," explained Brightheart.

"Accident? That accident wouldn't be called 'Crystal,' would it?" asked Grumpy sarcastically.

"Well, it wasn't all her fault, she's just a little new; I think she's got a lot of potential though."

"Humph...potential for disaster."

"Anyway, if you aren't too busy I was wondering if you'd help me in getting the Rainbow Rescue Beam straightened out."

"Yeah, just give me a minute to finish watering Cheer's flowers and then I'll head on over."

"Thanks Grumpy!" Brightheart said as he bounded back toward the Rainbow Rescue Beam.

* * *

"Ha, ha, ha, ha...this disguise is FOOL PROOF!" said Beastly quite confidently. He was covered almost completely in clouds and sneakily made his way toward Care-A-Lot.

Meanwhile, Grumpy had finally joined Brightheart and they were both surveying the damage.

"What a mess! This is going to take forever to get working again!" cried Grumpy.

"I know," sighed Brightheart as he handed Grumpy a pack of tools.

Elsewhere in Care-A-Lot there was a bustle of activity. Champ was out taking a jog, Wish Bear was with her Starascope, checking out things on Earth, Harmony Bear was playing a lovely little tune on a flute—nearly everyone in Care-A-Lot was enjoying the wonderfully pleasant day. Even Crystal was feeling better. After the whole Rescue Beam mess, Grams gave her some uplifting encouragement and put her to work babysitting Hugs and Tugs, which was the one thing she was quite good at.

While all this was going on, Beastly was slowly making his way deeper into Care-A-Lot. After some time he found the perfect target. Bedtime Bear was napping up in a tree and so was his Star Buddy. He skillfully crept up to the tree and began to climb, careful sure not to make a sound. After ascending a few branches he was finally close enough to nab the Star Buddy. With a swift arm he swooped the Star Buddy up into a jar and quickly closed the lid. The Star Buddy woke up and after realizing what had happened began to chirp for help. But the jar was almost soundproof and Bedtime continued to lay on the branch asleep. Beastly let out a quiet snicker, but just as he did the branch suddenly gave way and broke, sending Beastly, Bedtime, and the Star Buddy crashing down to the ground. First came Beastly, then Bedtime, and last the jar with the Star Buddy, which fell hard against the ground and shattered.

"Oh no!" cried Beastly, realizing he messed up again. He quickly scrambled to his feet just as Bedtime was wearily getting his bearings. He started running as fast as he could to the Rainbow Rescue Beam so he could make his escape. Finally Bedtime realized what was going on and went up after Beastly. The Star Buddy was also in hot pursuit and sounded quite upset.

"Ahhhh! Get away from me!" Beastly pleaded as the Star Buddy swooped down on him.

"Stop, Beastly! Come back here!" Bedtime called after.

* * *

Back down on Earth Noheart's creation was busy organizing his new lair. He found an old dark cave near the outskirts of a small town and was setting things up. After some time things were looking fairly well organized. There was a long table with an assortment of scientific and mystical equipment that he had taken from Noheart. He also took various spell books and one of Noheart's magical amulets which allows him to change shape. He had also set up a small bed, and a chair which he was now sitting in and reading one of the books from Noheart.

"I shall have much fun here I think," cackled the bear, as an evil grin smirked across his face. It was then that he heard a strange sound coming from somewhere outside. He made his way toward the entrance of the cave to see what was going on. In the distance he could see two creatures that looked a lot like him. One was quite pink and the other was of a yellow color like him. The bear decided to follow the two and see what they were doing and who they were.

* * *

Grumpy was halfway underneath a large machine and was grumbling away as he tiredly worked on it. Off in the distance he heard some strange noises.

"What do you suppose that is?" inquired Brightheart.

"I don't know, but it better not mess this thing up; I think I've just about got it working," replied Grumpy.

Suddenly Brightheart gasped and cried, "It's Beastly! And he's coming right this way!"

Grumpy quickly shot up, forgetting he was still underneath the machine and banged his head.

"OW!" he cried.

Brightheart could now see the terrified Beastly running their way, only he didn't appear to be paying any attention to where he was going, mostly due to Bedtime's Star Buddy, which was still darting at him as he ran. Beastly ran right into the building but as soon as he noticed Grumpy and Brightheart he really stopped looking where he was going and ran right through a pile of small metal ball bearings. Beastly went flying through the room and landed smack into one of the newly created support braces, breaking it right in two.

"What happened?" Beastly asked wearily, still quite disoriented from hitting the support brace. Grumpy finally got out from under the machine just as Bedtime caught up with them all.

"Beastly, you get over here right now!" ordered Bedtime. That's when they all heard an ominous groaning noise as the other supports started to give way under the pressure.

"Quick! Let's get out of here!" Grumpy yelled as they all dashed toward the entrance. Beastly jumped up too and headed as fast as he could out the door. Chaos then ensued as the whole building came crashing down, all of them barely making it out as it all collapsed. Slowly they started making their way out of the rubble as several other bears were hurriedly getting over to the scene.

"Well I couldn't catch a Star Buddy, but at least I completely destroyed the Rainbow Rescue Beam," Beastly snorted as he crawled out from underneath a large wall section. As soon as he got out from under it though he realized that there were several very angry bears standing around him.

"Uh...uh oh...gotta go!" he suddenly made another mad dash as the other bears started to give chase. Eventually Beastly did make his way out of Care-A-Lot; however, his hurried escape caused even more damage than just the destruction of the Rainbow Rescue Beam. Harmony Bear's recital hall looked like a tornado passed through, Friend Bear's kitchen and unfortunately...Cheer's flower garden that Grumpy was supposed to be looking after...all were ruined in Beastly's escape.

* * *

Down on earth Cheer and Funshine were helping a girl named Julie, whose parents were getting a divorce. Little did they know they were being spied on.

"It's not your fault, Julie; both your parents still love you very much," said Funshine comfortingly.

"Then why are they getting divorced? If they really loved me they would stay together!" cried the poor girl sobbingly.

"Oh, Julie, please don't cry, it'll be alright, really it will," said Cheer.

"But it's not fair!" Julie sniffed.

"I know it seems that way, but in time you'll see that it's not so bad. You'll still get to see both your mom and your dad and they'll both never stop loving and caring for you," said Funshine.

"Sometimes two people just have some problems and they need to be apart from each other; your mom and dad are just having some trouble getting along, so they're going to spend some time on their own. But I know one thing is for absolute certain, Julie!" said Cheer.

*sniff* "What's that?" asked Julie.

"Even though your parents will be away from each other the one person who they'll never want to be away from is you! They love you very much and more than anything they want you to understand that you're not the reason they couldn't get along."

"I know...but...but it just hurts so much inside."

Noheart's creation looked on in disgust.

"Ugh...I think I'm gonna be sick..." he groaned. "Maybe I can have some fun with them, he, he, he..."

Outside a rumbling could be heard and soon dark clouds filled the air. Cheer and Funshine were still talking with Julie, mainly just being there for her and trying to cheer her up. After a short time it had gotten very dark outside. The sun was almost blocked out completely by the black storm clouds. Cheer had gone downstairs to get Julie a glass of water while Funshine sat telling Julie about Care-A-Lot, which was helping her get her mind off things.

"Now I'll make things even MORE fun!" Noheart's creation snickered. With the snap of his finger suddenly the power was knocked out in the house, leaving them all in pitch blackness.

* * *

"Oh...what am I gonna tell Noheart!" Beastly whined as he slowly made his way back to the castle.

"Maybe I could tell him that I was ambushed! Yeah, that's it, they knew I was coming and ambushed me! Suddenly I was surrounded…little bears that shoot love out of their tummies were everywhere…there was no way I could handle them all! Oh, who am I kidding, he'll never buy that..."

Beastly let out a sigh and continued on gloomily, unaware of all that had transpired at Noheart's castle. His creation getting loose, the structural damage, and not to mention one nasty headache!


	3. Chapter 3

Grumpy sat at the foot of Cheer's destroyed flower garden, feeling very bad.

"What am I going to tell Cheer Bear?" Grumpy asked himself. He tried to replant one of the uprooted flowers only to have it wilt over on its side. Grumpy just frowned and let out a sigh. "Seeing her happy...it's one of the only things that really makes me feel happy." With that a little black rain cloud started to form above his head and little droplets of rain fell against his face, almost like artificial tears of sadness.

In the distance there was much commotion going on as all the bears hurriedly went about trying to restore order. The Rainbow Rescue Beam was completely demolished and for the time being had been blocked off until they could figure out how to go about restoring it. Tenderheart had announced a Hall of Hearts meeting in a few hours to assess the damages, repair time, and review security measures.

* * *

"Who turned out all the lights?!" exclaimed Cheer as she accidentally bumped into a wall.

Funshine suddenly stopped talking and perked up when the lights went out.

"Funshine, what's going on?" asked Julie.

"I don't know, Julie. Let me see if I can shed some light on the situation."

And with that her tummy symbol started to glow and suddenly the whole room lit up in bright light.

"That's better," said Funshine, quite proud of her work.

"WOW, that was really great!" exclaimed Julie as she examined the glowing walls.

"I'm glad you like it," giggled Funshine. "But I wonder what made the lights go out...and it's suddenly really dark and stormy outside.

Cheer came into the room then, rubbing her head where she had bumped into the wall.

"Hey, Funshine, what's going on with the lights?" asked Cheer.

"I don't know, but from the looks of things outside, maybe the power got knocked out."

Outside things were indeed dreadful looking. It had begun to rain and large thunder claps could be heard. Julie shuddered a bit at the loud rumbling and Cheer sat down next to her and put her arm around her for comfort.

"It'll be okay; we'll stay with you until the storm passes."

Julie gave a little smile but still appeared quite shaken up.

* * *

"What happened in here?!" exclaimed Beastly.

The castle was a mess. Broken furniture was strewn all about, broken bottles and scattered papers littered the floor, and several walls had large cracks in them. Suddenly Beastly noticed Noheart sprawled out on the floor.

"Noheart!" Beastly gasped as he ran over to his fallen master.

"Uh...b-b-boss...are you okay..." asked Beastly.

Noheart finally started to regain consciousness and slowly got to his feet. After a few moments he asked, "Beastly...Beastly where is it, where did it go?"

"Where did what go, Boss?"

"The bear...t-that stupid little bear..."

Beastly looked all around but didn't see anything.

"No bears here...maybe you, uh...hit yer head a lil too hard."

"No, Beastly, I did not hit my head too hard. I created a new creature to help me get rid of those Care Bears, but it did not work out as I had planned."

"Does it ever?" asked Beastly.

Noheart just glared at him for a moment before regaining his bearings and dusting himself off.

"Hrmmm...my amulet has been damaged and the spare seems to have gone missing. No doubt that...bear took it. I shall have to make a new one, but before I can do that I'll have to get a new crystal. While I'm gone Beastly, you will clean up this mess."

"Uh, sure thing...but don't you wanna know what happened?"

Noheart looked at Beastly questioningly.

"You know, with the uh...the, um...oh never mind.", Beastly said, hoping Noheart's head bump had made him forget about the list of ingredients he was supposed to get.

With that, Noheart left the castle, to get another crystal for his amulet.

* * *

"Derrick! Derrick wait for me!" yelled a young brunette girl, who looked to be about in her mid teens.

"Come on, Kristy, we're gonna be late!" a red-headed boy, also in his teens, yelled back.

"Tell me again why we're doing this?" asked the girl.

"Well...because we promised we would...and because it's nice," answered the boy.

The girl looked at him with a questioning smile and said, "You know, sometimes I think we spend more time being nice to others than we do being nice to ourselves."

The boy just let out a little laugh as he put his arm around the girl and gave her a quick kiss.

* * *

Suddenly the lights in the house came on with an eerie hum, only they kept getting brighter and brighter. Funshine and Cheer sensed that something wasn't quite right and positioned themselves around Julie in a protective stance. Suddenly the light bulbs exploded and Julie let out a scream and started crying. Meanwhile, sadistic laughter could be heard coming from somewhere downstairs.

"What do you think it is, Funshine?" asked Cheer in a very serious manner.

"I'm not sure, but this doesn't seem like Noheart's work...it's almost like it's playing with us...maybe it's Dr. Fright."

"Should we retreat?" asked Cheer?

Funshine nodded. "Until we know what it is we're better off falling back, especially with Julie here."

"I'm scared, Cheer!" exclaimed Julie.

"It'll be okay, Julie, we won't let anything happen to you," Cheer said comfortingly.

"When will Julie's parents be home, Cheer?" asked Funshine.

"Not for another four or five hours; but with the storm, I don't know, they might come home early."

"Well, we can have Wish keep a lookout and if they do then we can use the Rainbow Rescue Beam to get her back in a hurry if need be. I'm sure Brightheart has got it working by now," said Funshine.

"How does that sound, Julie? Would you like to come and visit Care-A-Lot?!" Cheer asked.

"REALLY?! You're really gonna take me to see Care-A-Lot?!" Julie exclaimed with a great big smile on her face, suddenly forgetting about the current danger they were in.

Cheer just gave her a nod, took her by the hand and headed toward the window while Funshine stood on guard, waiting for the unexpected to happen. With that, Cheer opened the window and her tummy symbol began to glow brightly as small clouds suddenly started forming together. Eventually it took the shape of a cloud car and the two got in.

"We're ready Funshine," exclaimed Cheer. But just then the door blew open and a blast of air knocked Funshine to the ground and caused the cloud car to swerve off and almost lose control.

"WWWWOOOOAAAAHHH!" yelled Cheer as the cloud car went flying sideways, nearly slamming into the house across the street. Julie gave out a little scream just as Cheer was able to regain control at the last second. Then suddenly lightning bolts were flashing around them and Cheer knew that with Julie in danger she had to get out as fast as possible, even if it meant leaving behind Funshine. Barely avoiding lighting strike after lighting strike Cheer managed to fly past the storm with Julie clinging tightly to her and whimpering.

* * *

"Wookit, Kwisty, wookit what I dwew!", exclaimed an excited little 3-year-old, holding up a drawing of a big smiley face to Kristy.

"WOW! That's really great! I love it!" Kristy said with a big smile. The little girl, happy with the praise, went back at it, this time adding blue hair. Kristy looked on smiling. Despite her occasional complaints, she actually really enjoyed volunteering down at the local day care center.

Derrick also seemed to enjoy the work, but Kristy knew that for him it was more about his personal struggle to cope with his past. At this point, the past seemed like just a blur to Kristy and she knew that in time she would probably eventually forget about the past events entirely. Whether as an effect of something the Care Bears had done, or something naturally occurring, when one starts to lose their innocence and becomes an adult. In either case, she knew there wasn't much she could do, but still worried about how it might affect her relationship with Derri-no...Darkheart.


	4. Chapter 4

Back in the Hall of Hearts the Care Bear family had gathered together to assess the recent damages caused by Beastly's little intrusion and to discuss future security measures.

"With the Rainbow Rescue Beam in need of repair I won't have time to get the new Caring Shield up and running," remarked Brightheart.

"I'm wondering if maybe we ought to postpone the repair of the Rainbow Rescue Beam and focus all of our efforts on the Caring Shield," said Tenderheart.

"But that will make caring missions much more difficult and will slow operations to possibly critical levels! Our adversaries might use the opportunity to launch a full-scale attack, not on Care-A-Lot, but the people of Earth. The Caring Shield may protect Care-A-Lot from direct attacks, but everything is still susceptible to the level of caring down on Earth," Wish Bear added in concern.

At this point, Champ, looking a little annoyed, chimed in and said, "I think it's important to note that we wouldn't even be having this debate right now if it weren't for a cert-"

"That's enough!" interrupted Tenderheart. "We won't be wasting our time blaming others for what's already happened. It's already occurred, so now we just have to deal with it."

"That's not my point, though," Champ added indignantly. "My point is that it could and probably will happen again."

"And just what would you have us do about it? Kick her out of Care-A-Lot?" replied Tenderheart.

"Look, I don't know what we should do, but we all know she doesn't belong here, she isn't even really a part of the Care Bear family."

Brightheart then interrupted and in a heated tone said, "She's OUR responsibility; we messed up and any shortcomings that she might currently have are the fault of what WE did, or couldn't do. She is a part of the Care Bear Family, just as much as you or I, and it's up to us to help her feel welcome and to help her adjust. I'm not saying it's going to be easy, but we can't stop caring, we just can't."

At that many of the Care Bears and Care Bear Cousins started nodding their heads in agreement and discussing it amongst themselves. Tenderheart was starting to feel a little down; after all, it was his decision ultimately and he had made it, but at the time he really didn't have any other choice. But that didn't make it any easier to swallow.

* * *

Cheer was nearing Care-A-Lot, her cloud car barely holding together. Julie was still clutching her and was looking really distraught.

"It's okay, Julie, we're safe now!"

"But...but what about Funshine?" she asked sadly.

The question made Cheer twinge a bit, that bear was seriously powerful and could easily overwhelm Funshine. But she had to protect Julie...even now, she thought.

"Funshine will be just fine; that bad guy won't be able to stand a chance against her!"

"Then how come we had to leave?" Julie asked innocently.

Cheer again twinged at the question. She was lying now, blatantly so, but she knew Julie couldn't handle the truth.

"I had to get you out of there Julie, because otherwise Funshine wouldn't have been able to stop him and you could have gotten hurt. But you're safe now. Funshine is going to take care of that bad guy and she'll make sure he never comes back to bother you ever again. Okay?"

Julie pondered all this for a second and then exclaimed, "Okay!" and gave a little smile.

"Julie...look!" said Cheer bear, trying to sound as cheery as she could.

In the distance, just over the horizon of a huge cloud that seemed to stretch across the sky, the sun gleamed over the edge in brilliant colors of red, orange and gold. The light seemed to sparkle and shimmer into the shapes of buildings which soon came into view as being made of puffy white clouds. Candy cane colored poles toped with hearts, stunning paths and roads made of rainbow light along with ponds and lakes of the most brilliant blue water you can imagine danced across the landscape. It was truly a breathtaking sight and Julie was in awe of the incredible magnificence of it all.

Cheer on the other hand was feeling just awful and wished to herself that her cloud car could go just a little bit faster.

Soon Cheer was able to land and, as luck would have it, she immediately spotted the one bear she needed right now more than anyone...Crystal.

The landing was a bit rough due partially to the damage the cloud car sustained and partly because she was in such a rush to land and get help. Julie looked at Cheer questioningly, who responded with a nervous laugh and a smile. "I've never been very good at landings," she remarked, again noting to herself that she had once again lied. Crystal bounded over to them and greeted them both happily.

"And who is this sweet little girl?" inquired Crystal, giving Julie a big grin.

"My name is Julie; what's your name?" asked Julie

"My name is Crystal."

"Uh...Crystal," interrupted Cheer, "do you think you could show Julie around Care-A-Lot, um...kind of give her a tour."

Crystal thought the request was a little strange; after all, it was extremely unusual to bring visitors to Care-A-Lot, and Cheer seemed oddly anxious about something.

"Um, okay...yeah, I can show her around, no problem!" she replied, happy to finally be able to help out, even if she did feel a little out of the loop, but that wasn't very unusual.

Julie turned to Cheer and asked, "Why can't you show me around?"

Cheer was really feeling bothered now and almost felt as if she was being tested; never before had she been in such a situation where the only way to protect innocence and caring was to be dishonest and lie.

"I...I've got to go and check in with the other Care Bears and let them know about that bad guy that Funshine drove off," she said, somewhat hesitantly.

Crystal then looked at Cheer questioningly but was quickly shot back with a look that said, "Don't ask, just do what you're told." Crystal glanced away, down at her feet, reminded again about how she was often left out of things. She thought maybe in time she'd be more accepted, but even after two years she still felt like an outsider. She then glanced back to Julie and said, "Well, should we get going? There's so much to see!"

"Yeah!" exclaimed Julie, as they started off.

Cheer felt all mixed up inside, frozen in tormented thought for a moment, she then started to back up a few steps, then a few more; then she turned, fully snapped back to reality and started running...and running...faster and harder than she had ever run before in her life.

* * *

The volley of lighting bolts had targeted the cloud car more than it had Funshine. But she had been standing too close to the window at the time and got a nasty shock that sent her reeling back into a corner of the room. She knew that Cheer would leave her behind; she couldn't risk putting Julie in danger. But that meant she was on her own. While he was distracted with targeting the cloud car, Funshine closed her eyes and used her tummy symbol to engulf the whole room in the bright, blinding light. It worked—the bear was disoriented and couldn't see. Now was her chance to escape!

She bolted to the door, ran down the stairs, and started toward the door, when a lightning strike blasted the path in front of her. She knew she was in trouble now. Part of her had hoped that he could only use his power from the outside and would be defenseless in closed quarters if it came down to a one-on-one confrontation, but she realized now she was outmatched. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted the stairway leading to the basement and quickly surmised that her best bet would be to try to hide in the dark. Although doing so would trap her, she figured it would be her best bet to try and wait for help.

The evil bear saw her run for the basement, but this time took no effort to stop her. He knew that she was trapped and he could toy with her as he liked. "I'll give her a few minutes to hide and ponder the feeling of being hunted for my amusement," he cackled to himself.

* * *

Derrick was walking Kristy home, both of them quiet and somber. Derrick seemed distracted and lost in thought. Kristy wanted to say something, she wanted to tell him it would be alright, that she would always be there for him, but somehow she felt he just needed some time to himself.

"I can feel something," he finally said.

"What is it?" asked Kristy.

"I'm not quite sure...but it's going to be bad...something terrible is going to happen or, or maybe it already has happened," he said with a tone of uncertainty.

They stopped and Kristy turned to him and looked in his eyes. They were as blue as sapphires and gave off a feeling of peace and tranquility. Kristy remembered a time though...a time when his eyes were as red as fire and burned with the light of hatred and evil. She suddenly felt a chill and shuddered.

"I...I don't ever want to lose you," she pleaded.

Derrick put his arm around her and held her close to him. "I don't know what's going to happen," he told her. "But whatever happens, I'll always know that you're there to pull me back. As long as you're with me, the darkness can never again consume me...never."

* * *

It was dark and cold. Funshine couldn't hear him in pursuit, but nevertheless remained cautious and didn't dare to light up the room to see where she was going for fear of being seen. She managed to feel her way through the black twisted maze of the basement to a large stack of old blankets. She pulled one off, draped it over herself and tucked herself away behind some boxes. And then she waited.

* * *

Tenderheart finally spoke up and quieted the room. "Brightheart is right; we can't stop caring, no matter what has happened or what might happen, we just can't. Now I think it's best that we try to finish the Caring Shield first. If we can't get it up and running within the next day or two we'll put it on hold and repair the Rainbow Rescue Beam. It'll take at least that long anyway to repair the damage to the building."

And with that, suddenly the Hall of Hearts doors burst open and in ran Cheer, nearly out of breath and looking quite alarmed.

"Cheer, what's wrong, what's happened?" asked Tenderheart.

Gasping for breath she managed to choke out, "We need...to rescue Funshine...RIGHT NOW!"

With that all the Care Bears and Care Cousins got out of their chairs and prepared to mobilize. "Let's get going! You can explain on the way down, Cheer," Tenderheart ordered. She only nodded and headed out to the landing strip with the others.

* * *

A slight creaking could be heard throughout the basement as the evil bear slowly made his way down.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are," the evil bear teased.

Funshine could hear him getting closer and closer. She had lost track of the time and her mind raced. Had Cheer gotten back yet? How soon would she have to wait for help? What if she was found? She could hear him breathing now...he was very close. She could almost feel him. The rest of the basement was incredibly still and the silence of it all made every little movement seem like a crashing cymbal giving away her presence. She felt her heart beating faster and faster, and thought for sure that he'd be able to hear it and would come swooping down like some sort of wild beast looking to devour her!

"Get a grip!" she thought to herself, realizing that now was REALLY not the time to panic. She knew she'd have to come up with a plan on her own.

"My best bet is to try and blind him again, but this time don't let up until I'm out of the house," she thought.

Unfortunately, the evil bear was prepared for this. When she heard him walk out of the direct path toward the stairs, she pulled the blanket off and lit the basement in a blinding white light and started running for the door. All of a sudden she heard what sounded like firecrackers going off all around her as she got slammed to the floor. She lost control of the light and winced in pain, unable to get up.

"Stings a bit, doesn't it?" the evil bear mocked.

With that, he raised his hand and the basement lights slowly came on, exposing poor Funshine, injured and unable to run. The evil bear then walked over to her, looked down, and smiled as he coldly said, "Caught you."

"Why are you doing this?! What sort of trick are you playing?!" Funshine demanded, hurt and in pain.

"Trick?" he said. "Trick...I like that..." He then raised his paw toward her, obviously ready to hit her with a full lighting strike at point-blank range. Just as he was about to electrocute Funshine, her tummy symbol instantly lit up and a beam of intense light blasted the evil bear across the room and slammed him hard into the concrete wall of the basement. It lasted only a few short seconds, though; she simply didn't have enough energy for anything more than that.

"Who ARE you?!" she demanded as she slowly managed to get to her feet.

The evil bear slowly got up off the ground, this time a little more cautious and keeping his distance.

"Well, I suppose you can call me...Trick," he answered.

"I don't understand," she replied.

"I really don't need you to," he said, realizing she was spent. He then raised his paw toward her and blasted her straight on with a lighting strike following by a thrashing of smaller lighting strikes. She fell to the ground, unable to move from her injuries and exhaustion; she knew if the others didn't get there right now, she was going to die. This bear, this "Trick," he didn't care at all—pure evil in its most destructive form...but it was more than that, it was a senseless kind of evil, one that had no real purpose other than to embrace itself. No desire for conquest or capture, it sought only to torture and destroy, purely out of design.


	5. Chapter 5

Julie was having the time of her life touring through care-a-lot with Crystal. Never before had she seen so many incredible things in such brilliant, inspiring colors, it was a relentless, pleasurable assault on the senses. After some time the two had settled in on top of a very large hill overlooking the whole of Care-A-Lot. They lay on the heavenly soft clouds, looking up into an endless blue sky as a warm, sweet smelling breeze blew over them producing an intoxicating sense of contentment and bliss.

"This is where I like to go to kind of think things through, whenever I get worried or upset this place always calms me," Crystal said, as she looked up in the sky dreamily.

"Do you ever feel sad?" asked Julie.

"Sometimes," replied Crystal.

"...what do you do if you're sad and you just wish everything could go back like it was? Isn't there some way to do that?"

Crystal looked over at Julie in sympathy and said, "Things will always change...sometimes in good ways and sometimes in bad ways. You can't change things that have already happened, but you can learn from them...and if you've fallen down, the only place you can look is up!" she said as she pointed up at the sky with a smile.

Julie smiled back and replied, "I saw Funshine light up a whole room using her tummy magic...I just thought...maybe magic could change things."

"I wish it could. But magic shouldn't be used to try and change the way people feel...that's what bad guys like Noheart try to use magic for. If magic was used to change the way you feel though, then you wouldn't really be you, you would loose part of your self."

Julie didn't fully understand, but she got enough to know that magic couldn't be used to make her parents stay together.

Satisfied with this reality she then asked, "What sorts of things can you do with your tummy magic?"

The question made Crystal twinge a bit as she replied, "Well...I can't really use "tummy magic" like the other bears..."

"How come?" inquired Julie.

* * *

The blast was immensely powerful, it shot across the room with such a violent force that the whole house trembled in response. Funshine had just started to lose consciousness, but knew there was nothing more she could do. The wave of energy hit him dead on and Trick was smashed into the far wall of the basement. Tenderheart, Braveheart and Champ burst into the basement in the nick of time and didn't hesitate to use their power. Cheer had explained the situation on the way down and they knew that any sort of creature that would take such violent action against a child was not to be taken lightly. Even Noheart, as evil as he postures, only seeks to destroy caring, not to destroy people directly (at least outside of the Care Bear Family). Cheer rushed down after the three and went over to help Funshine, who was badly hurt. The basement was quiet as dust floated up from the debris that covered Trick. But the bears knew it wasn't over.

"Get Funshine out of here right now," Tenderheart told Cheer as he looked intently on the pile of debris. Just as Cheer was getting Funshine out of the basement Trick started to get himself up out of the rubble.

"Caught me off guard you did," stated Trick as the others just looked on in silence. "Don't want to ta-," he was cut short as the three charged up their tummy symbols, ready to attack again. "...no, I guess you don't."

"Stand down right now and give up," commanded Tenderheart.

Trick just gave a smirk.

"You have until a 3 count," said Tenderheart.

Trick continued to smirk.

Tenderheart looked coldly at Trick and said, "three", immediately followed by Braveheart saying, "two", but before Champ could say one Trick went on the offensive and the entire room was alive with lightning. The bears immediately responded by taking evasive action and firing their tummy symbols at Trick who was once again knocked to the ground.

"Your magic is powerful, I'll give you that," said Tenderheart, slightly singed from a close call lighting strike, "but your delivery is sloppy and your attacks rely too much on shock and surprise...not only that, but you're trapped."

Trick was most displeased at this point and was no longer smiling. He managed to get partway up off the floor, in a semi crouched position on one knee.

"Maybe you're right," he replied, "...but your power relies far too much on your environment." He said as he put his paw to the floor and sent out an electric blast so powerful it split numerous support beams in the basement that shot up directly through the entire house.

"Whatcha gonna do now?" he taunted, as the entire house began to creak and moan, ready to collapse at any moment.

"RUN!" yelled Tenderheart. The three ran out of the basement and out of the house just as the whole thing came down in a giant thunderous crash.

"Do you think he could have survived?" asked Champ pantingly.

Tenderheart shook his head, "I don't think so, not a collapse like that," he replied, catching his breath.

At this point the other bears were looking on when Brightheart ran up to Tenderheart with a look of grave concern.

"What is it, Brightheart?" asked Tenderheart.

"We need to get out of here right away," he replied just as fire truck and police sirens could be heard coming towards the house. Tenderheart simply nodded and gave the order to fall back to Care-a-lot.

* * *

The air was thick and repressively hot. The walls of the cave were carved into tortured faces of hatred and evil. In the distance sounds of horrible creatures could be heard...moans...growls...screeching, all from unimaginable faces of twisted abominations roaming about in the pitch blackness that rolled through the cavern like a cancerous fog. The only light that could be seen emanated from none other than Noheart. He stalked through the cavern, unafraid, with no hesitation or reaction to the wilds around him. He moved with a pointed purpose and a seemingly instinctual sense of direction. After some time he came upon a broken old well in the middle of a small opening from the main tunnel. He knelt down at the well and as he got closer the light that surrounded him gave a faint glimpse of the sea of squirming insects of all shapes and sizes that infested every inch of the well. Without a second thought Noheart plunged his hand straight into the horde, dug around for a bit and then pulled out the most brilliant red gem stone you can imagine. A strange light radiated from the gem stone, and it was as if it was twisting the space around it, a kind of disorienting sense of reality...but it was no illusion, this gem stone had the power to alter and reshape reality itself, the source of power behind Noheart's magic amulet that allowed him to change into the form of any sort of creature he desired.

* * *

The fire started just seconds after the Care Bears left, a broken gas main and sparks from an exposed electrical line produced a jet stream of fire that quickly set the entire ruins of the house ablaze. Before the fire had a chance to get out of control Trick had somehow managed to survive and pulled himself out from the debris and was able to run out of sight before the fire trucks and so forth managed to get there.

* * *

Back in Care-a-lot the bears went about the business of repairing the wrecked Rescue Beam building and Grumpy started work on the Caring Shield. Meanwhile Tenderheart, Wish and Brightheart were up in the lookout tower, with Wish looking down on things with her starascope.

"It looks bad...real bad...a fire started and they're having trouble putting it out," stated Wish.

"Any sign of Trick?" asked Tenderheart.

"I don't see him anywhere...he probably didn't make it."

Tenderheart looked solemn and weary. "I don't know what we're going to tell her...and her parents, it's not going to take long for the authorities to contact them...we need to get her back there...but explaining this..."

Wish continued Tenderheart's monologue, "...she's already been through so much, to have this thrown at her now..."

"We may have to alter her memo-," but before Tenderheart could finish his statement Brightheart interrupted.

"NO! We absolutely cannot do that!" he said emphatically.

"I know it's not ideal, but what else can we do?" replied Tenderheart.

"No, it's not that, it's the balance of things. It takes a lot of magic to mask our presence and nature from that which isn't innocent. We just had a raging battle in the middle of a quiet suburban town that resulted in a whole house being leveled and then burned to the ground. All the noise that was made during the battle was enough to attract onlookers from the neighboring houses."

Tenderheart suddenly looked at Brightheart in alarm, "I...I hadn't even noticed."

"Our presence was masked, the magic reacts automatically so they couldn't see us, but with so many of us there and all the onlookers...it took an incredible amount of magic and upset the balance. The more of our magic we use, the greater the ease for dark/evil forces to manifest themselves. Unless something is done now to increase the amount of caring in the world I'm afraid something terrible is going to happen and using any more high level magic, like altering a little girl's memory...that could easily tip the scale."

"...we could be looking at another Darkheart incarnation, couldn't we?" asked Wish.

Brightheart simply nodded.

* * *

Burning embers and thick black smoke swirled up from the ruins of the house as fire fighters scrambled to try and put the blaze out. Trick looked on, hidden by the branches of a large oak tree. He stared intently at the chaos and fiery remnants of the once beautiful house.

"They'll have to be destroyed," he thought to himself. "I won't let them ruin my fun..." He continued to gaze at the fiery destruction and was suddenly struck with a fiendish idea.

"...I'll need some help," he said aloud as he took his leave of the scene.


	6. Chapter 6

At this time Julie was being looked after by Grams bear and she was taking a long nap with Hugs and Tugs. Crystal was walking along the outer rim of Care-a-lot. From this point on the outskirts the Hall of Hearts was only a small dot on the horizon. There were only clouds and sky here, no rainbow roads or colors, no buildings or bears. It felt more natural to her, part of her thought it was because she didn't really fit in and so the further away she was the more comfortable she felt...but another part of her felt differently. She couldn't really put her finger on it though. She would ponder it for hours, with the answer on the tip of her tongue, but every time she thought it was about to reveal itself it would vanish and she was left with a cold, empty feeling, as if some part of her was missing.

The sky over Care-a-lot had become dull and all throughout the color was less vibrant and everything seemed to have a dingy sort of look. The Care Bears themselves could feel the effects, they felt sluggish and tired. Crystal could see the effects of the drained magic even from her current vantage point. The once brilliant and shining Care-a-lot seemed somber and almost dreary. It reminded her of something...a feeling...a cold feeling.

* * *

Elsewhere in Care-a-lot Cheer was standing over her ruined flower garden looking very sad and thinking about the lies she told Julie. Had she done the right thing she thought to herself, was there another way that she could have handled it. But could have and would have had very little meaning at this point, like her dead flowers there was nothing she could do to change what had already happened.

It was then that Grumpy walked over. He felt awkward and that it was his fault that her flowers were wrecked. Grumpy didn't know what was really bothering Cheer and he thought that she might be angry and upset at him.

After a bit of silence Grumpy finally said, "I...I'm sorry...about the flowers."

It was then that Cheer really took notice of Grumpy and she wondered for a second how long he had been standing there. She didn't want him to know that she was sad, so she forced a smile and said, "It's alright...I-I can plant new ones."

But her attempts to sound cheery were hollow at best and her sadness was far too great to hide from the one bear that she felt such a close connection to.

This just made Grumpy feel even worse. "I really let her down," he thought to himself. "She must hate me...I-I should just leave her alone," he thought as he looked down at his feet, slowly turned away and walked off.

As he turned away Cheer felt a lump grow in her throat and felt sick to her stomach, "I can't...I can't even cheer up Grumpy bear...," she thought as she started crying a little.

* * *

A little later Crystal found Tenderheart who was busy talking about caring missions with other bears.

"Tenderheart...," she asked meekly. He didn't seem to notice her.

"Um...Tenderheart, I-," she went on.

At this point Tenderheart finally took notice and finished up his conversation with Goodluck and Champ and they took their leave. "I don't really have ti-," he started.

"I jus- I...I need to...to talk to somebody is all...," she interrupted.

At this point Tenderheart just looked at her and he put his arm on her shoulder.

"Why am I different?" she asked.

"What do you mean?" asked Tenderheart.

"How come I can't use a Care Bear stare?"

"I told you already Crystal, you'll gain the ability eventually, it just takes time."

"But how much time? And where did I come from? I mean, where did I REALLY come from. I know you haven't told me everything. I can feel something is missing. I know you think I'm just some dumb bear whose clumsy and doesn't understand anything bu-"

At this point Tenderheart interrupted her, "Crystal, no one is hiding anything from you and I don't think you're dumb. I think you feel out of place sometimes because you're new and you've had a hard time adapting to life here in Care-a-lot, but in time you'll adjust and once you feel more at ease things will start to come naturally, including your ability to stare, just give it time, okay?"

It wasn't what she wanted to hear, but she nodded reluctantly at Tenderheart's explanation. He could see it in her eyes and thought he should do something more for her.

"Crystal, why don't you help me out for a bit?" Tenderheart asked. She perked up at this, as it was pretty unusual for Tenderheart to be asking for her help.

"Right now we're pushed to our limits trying to bring up the level of caring in the world and we haven't had time to put in any research on Trick or where he came from. I suspect that the incident with Beastly might have had something to do with it but at this point that's just speculation. Readings on Trick's magic power were taken at the time of the battle, I'd like you to go to the records and research building, see if you can't find something in the archives that might be related to the type of magic that Trick had."

"O-okay...sure, I can do it!" she replied as Tenderheart handed her a data crystal with the information on Trick's magical power. She was happy to finally be doing something meaningful instead of just helping other bears or babysitting duty.

* * *

While the Care Bears were busy trying to increase the level of caring in the world to replenish their magic, Trick was busy making his own plans.

"He, he, he...those pathetic fools, I'll fix them good," Trick said as he took Noheart's amulet in his paw, twirled it around a bit and then hammered it hard into a table, breaking the stone from the base.

He then picked up the freed stone and held it over a cauldron filled with a reddish liquid as he read from one of the spell books he stole from Noheart and started chanting some magical words. As he spoke the amulets color seemed to drain out as it changed from red to oil black. It then started to loose it's coherency as it became misshapen and liquid like. It oozed down from his paw and dropped into the cauldron. In just a few seconds the color of the liquid in the cauldron changed as the amulet stone had done. After it was finished Trick chanted some more words and zapped several electrical bolts of energy into the black goo. The substance reacted to the shocks as a tentacle of the stuff grew out from the cauldron. Trick reached his paw out and touched the ooze after which it spilled itself out over the floor and began to grow into the form of a Care Bear as Trick looked on with an evil grin.

* * *

Meanwhile Crystal had gone over to the records and research building. She found it empty...and strangely cold. She shivered a bit, but shrugged it off and set to work. She inserted the data crystal and uploaded the information into the computer. The system was very simple to use, designed and built by Brightheart. Once the data was uploaded she had the computer run a search for any relevant connections, several quickly popped up. She found the magic was of an elemental base, in Trick's case lightning. She also learned that there were various other known elemental bases including fire, ice, water and wind as well as a list of other suspected magics. She read on: "Elemental magics are formless, neither a form of good or evil and can be harnessed not just through a living being but in machinery as well, such was the case with the..."

She suddenly stopped. "Crystal Heart?" she read aloud. She then attempted to run a search on the phrase but could find no entries.

"That's odd," she thought. She sat there for a moment, thinking about it and then her attention wandered around the screen...and that's when she spotted the "search protected archives" options.

* * *

Derrick had just walked Kristy home and was now headed back to his own place when he heard a crow cawing at him. He looked up and saw it perched atop of a tree branch. When he saw it he recoiled a little, half expecting it to come at him and attack. But the crow just sat there cawing at him. Derrick looked a little closer and could see it was no ordinary crow. Its coat had a purplish shimmer to it and its eyes...he couldn't see it at first, but he definitely felt it...the evil.

"What do you want?" he finally asked of the creature.

At first it just cocked its head to the side and let out another caw, but then it suddenly flew down from the branch and it's formed shifted and grew out into the shape of a man as black and purplish smoke writhed up from where he had formed.

"We need to talk," said Noheart, now back in his human form.

"I think you have me confused for someone else." Derrick replied back matter-of-factly.

"On the contrary, it is you who are confused...about who and more importantly WHAT you are."

Derrick simply glared at the old wizard in contempt.

"Are you aware of what's happened?" asked Noheart.

"Something bad," replied Derrick.

"Oh yes, quite so. There is a new form of evil, very different from yours and mine."

"The evil in me was destroyed a long time ago," Derrick shot back.

"Ha, ha, ha," cackled Noheart. "No, boy, it was not. The evil is very much still within you, it only lies dormant. All these good deeds you keep doing, you think it's to atone for what you tried to do, don't you?"

Derrick shifted a little, he felt like he was being manipulated.

"Really though, the reason you're doing it is to keep the evil within you locked away, contained. You see, the reason evil like ours tries to destroy all the caring in the world is because it causes us pain, we can't live in such a world. Too much caring causes us to revert into a dormant state and can even kill us. It was your little friend Kristy that caused your power to become locked within you. Her suffering caused your human side to crumble and give in, resulting in an overwhelming surge of caring and feeling, which in turn forced your evil side into submission."

"Even if what you're saying is true, what do I care at this point?"

"Ha ha ha ha...caring is indeed very much the point, boy. The new evil that has emerged, unlike the kind that ours is based on, this form feeds off suffering and loss and the more that people care, the more powerful he becomes. Unlike us, he will seek to increase the level of caring rather than destroy it."

"And what would be so terrible about that?"

"You fool, the more you care for something the more it hurts to lose it. He'll cause massive destruction and chaos to bring about the sort of caring that he thrives on and that level and form of caring will destroy not just me, but you as well," Noheart snapped.

"I'm sure the Care Bears can put a stop to it, they've proven effective enough in the past...especially against you," Derrick snapped back.

"The Care Bears won't be able to stop him alone; his potential is far greater than the power they represent. Evil begets evil, your evil, although contained, is the only source great enough to stop him."

"I won't...I won't do it. I won't destroy myself and sacrifice my relationship with Kristy, the world might as well be destroyed if that happens."

"Relax boy, you don't need to sacrifice anything, you just need to learn how to tap into your evil energy and control it."

"And how do I know you're not just trying to manipulate me? To try and gain control of my power?"

"You can sense his evil; even if you don't trust me, you know that much of it is true."

"...you keep saying "him" and "his"...you created it...didn't you?" Derrick accused.


	7. Chapter 7

Crystal accessed the protected archives easily enough. The pass code was the name of Brightheart's Star Buddy, "Alnair". She once again ran a search for "Crystal Heart"; several references came up, log files, the first from Tenderheart…

* * *

"I don't care, I'm going anyway," said a teenage girl with shoulder length blonde hair and a bit of snub nose. She had a slight overbite and was a bit short for her age, but had a fiery spirit and great determination.

"It'll be dangerous," Tenderheart told her.

"I'm responsible for them, I have to."

Tenderheart nodded.

* * *

"What is this place?" the girl asked.

"This is the entrance to Coldheart's domain...the Land Without Feeling. It was once a beautiful place, with trees and flowers, green fields and streams...but it was turned cold and ugly, by a mean old man whose unfeeling hatred of everything twisted his soul and he became consumed with an evil that turned his heart to ice," explained Tenderheart.

"...metaphoric ice?" the girl questioned with a hint of sarcasm.

"No, REAL ice," stated Grumpy, in a most serious tone.

"...oh," stated the girl, suddenly a little sorry she had asked.

"But you can stop him...right?" she continued.

"His evil power is great, compounded by an infusion of a type of elemental magic, but yes, we can and will stop him," stated Tenderheart.

* * *

The entrance had once been a magnificent park, but now it was a desolate wasteland of barren dirt, rocks and leafless deadened trees that seemed to scream up from the ground in horror, frozen in their tormented agony. As they moved further into his domain the dirt gave way to snow and air became colder and colder. There was no wind though, nothing that could ever breath life into the wasteland of icy hatred. In the distance they could see it...Coldheart Castle. It stood atop a giant crag of frozen rock and ice, its form was twisted and angry, its towers were topped with cold metal roofs and a giant iron door stood at its front.

"...th-they're in there?" asked the girl.

"It's not too late if you want to turn back," Tenderheart told her.

She paused for a moment. "No...no I won't leave them."

"Then let's get going," ordered Tenderheart.

But the girl suddenly felt frozen with fear, like she knew something bad was going to happen, but couldn't quite explain it.

"It'll be alright," said Brightheart who took her by the hand. "Let's go," he said softy as he pulled her out of the doubt and confusion.

"Why do we have to walk? Isn't there a faster way?" she asked Brightheart.

"There is, but it would require using magic and that would give away our position and plan of attack. The plan is to try and sneak in and sneak out if at all possible and to try and avoid a direct confrontation."

"Why is that?"

"Coldheart...or I should say Professor Coldheart...well; he's a bit of an inventor with a touch of mad scientist. More than likely this is all a trap and the kids you were babysitting that he kidnapped, well they're probably just the bait to try and force us into a position where he can try and use one of his contraptions against us," Brightheart explained.

The girl looked at Brightheart with a bit of concern. "This really does just sound better by the minute. I think I've had all the back story I can handle at this point, if I hear any more I don't think I'm gonna be able to go on."

"I'll stay with you...and I'll protect you," Brightheart told her as he held her hand a little tighter. She returned the gesture of gallantry with a smile and started to feel a bit better.

* * *

Some time later they had reached the castle and managed to sneak in undetected and were making their way through the corridors when suddenly an icy hand shot out from one of the walls and grabbed the girl. She was frozen in terror as a horrible creature made of solid ice broke itself out from the wall. It was thin and skeleton like, with hollow eyes and long, sharp, jagged teeth. Brightheart didn't hesitate and blasted the minion full on, smashing it to pieces. The girl stood there for a moment, still in the grip of fear.

"I…I couldn't do anything…I felt so afraid," she finally said.

"It's okay to be afraid," said Tenderheart as he took her hand where the creature had grabbed it. As he did his tummy symbol glowed for a moment and suddenly the girl was awash in a feeling of contentment and understanding. The cold was driven out of her by a loving warmth that she couldn't quite describe, but she suddenly felt very much at ease.

"He probably knows we're here now, so if it is a trap we don't have much choice but to walk into it."

No sooner than he said those words the entire floor gave way and the party found themselves sliding down an icy shaft that emptied out into a large room.

"Ha, ha, ha, ha…nice of you to drop in," cackled Coldheart, who was sitting lazily on an icy throne. He suddenly snapped his fingers and several large icicles broke from the ceiling and caged them in.

"What's your game, Coldheart?" demanded Tenderheart.

"I'm afraid it's game over for you fuzzy wuzzys."

The girl then noticed the two kids; they were locked in a metal cage suspended from the ceiling, huddled together, cold and afraid.

"Let the kids go!" Tenderheart ordered.

Coldheart just snickered as he walked over to a large mass covered over by a sheet.

"I've got something to show you," he sneered as he pulled down the sheet, revealing a device that looked something like a canon mounted up on a revolving base. Snaking wires twisted their way from the canon to a large chamber of some sort. Next to that was a shelf filled with glass shards in the shapes of hearts. Coldheart picked one of them up, stared at it a moment and then put it in the machine.

"What is it?" Brightheart asked aloud.

"It's my masterpiece…a harmonic resonance disrupter combined with an energy capture beam…to put it another way, one part of the device rips you apart particle by particle while another part captures all the caring energy within you and contains it in one of these," he explained as he pointed to one of the crystal hearts.

"That's awful!" cried the girl.

Coldheart cackled at this. "Isn't it though? I'll turn the whole world into a wasteland of nothingness and despair!"

"You're not the only one with advanced technology, Coldheart," Tenderheart stated.

Coldheart raised an eyebrow at the comment, just as Funshine, Cozyheart, Champ and Braveheart transported in using the Rainbow Rescue Beam. They didn't hesitate to act, Cozyheart used her ability to melt the ice trapping the others and they took an offensive stance against Coldheart.

"Ha, ha, ha, ha!" he cackled as he snapped his chilling fingers causing several dozen of the icy creatures they had seen before break out from the walls and take opposing stances.

The Care Bears began firing stares at the creatures and they began firing back with ice blasts. The light from the stares reflecting against the icy walls created a near blinding effect and the destruction of the creatures caused a raining shower of icy shards to fly over them. In the midst of the chaos and confusion Coldheart engaged his machine and took aim at Brightheart. The girl took cover at first, trying to stay out of the way, but then she noticed Coldheart's intentions. "NO!" she screamed as she shot up and rushed over to Brightheart, knocking him out of the line of fire just as the weapon discharged.


	8. Chapter 8

Swiftheart had just finished a caring mission and was getting ready to head back to Care-a-lot. She made her way into a nearby wood and looked around. The day was warm and the woods were bathed in golden light from the midday sun that shown down through the green tree tops of the secluded clearing. Once she was sure no one was around she began powering up her tummy symbol to create a cloud car when her ears suddenly perked up in response to a strange rustling noise in the distance.

"Whose there?" she asked aloud as she caught a glimpse of something yellow running into some bushes.

She made her way over to the bushes where she had heard the sound. She couldn't make out the figure through the dense underbrush but decided to investigate. Unfortunately her super speed was of no use in this thick shrubbery. She struggled through the branches, chasing after the silhouette of the figure.

"Wait up!" she called after it.

Every time she was about to get close enough to make out the figure it seemed to move farther on ahead. Speckles of light danced wildly through the green brush as she pushed harder through. The bright flashes of sunlight created an air of confusion to the chase and she became a little disoriented. Finally she fought through into a clearing. The air was quiet and still and there was no movement of any kind. She stood there for a moment as she looked over the clearing, but saw nothing. The silence of it all was eerie and she suddenly felt a chill run down her spine. "I must be losing my mind," she finally said as she turned around, right into the face of Trick.

* * *

Meanwhile Goodluck was on a caring mission of his own. A little boy had gotten lost, separated from his mom and dad on a family outing.

Goodluck was able to find the boy alright…but something wasn't right. The boy was sitting on a rock in an open clearing, hunched over and appeared to be crying. But as Goodluck got closer he noticed that the boy wasn't making any sound. "Is he crying?" Goodluck thought to himself as he walked closer.

"Little boy…," he spoke softly, not wanting to startle him.

The boy didn't respond but sat there in the same position, Goodluck moved closer.

"My name is Goodluck, I'm a Care Bear, its okay, you don't need to be afraid. I'm here to help you find your parents."

But still the boy said nothing and didn't move. He was standing almost right behind him now and Goodluck reached his paw out to touch the boy on the shoulder.

* * *

Crystal was in shock. She suddenly felt a wave of emotions flow over her that she hadn't ever felt before.

"Wh-what did they do to me?!" she cried out. She felt horrified, hurt, betrayed…those whom she had called friends, those she trusted, all this time they had been lying to her about everything. She began to sob uncontrollably, unsure of what to do. Who could she trust now? What would they do to her if they found out what she had learned? She felt her heart start to race and suddenly hurt and betrayal were replaced by panic and fear, her emotions were out of control and she couldn't concentrate, couldn't think clearly. She became overwhelmed with a sudden urge to run…to get away from Care-a-lot as fast as she could.

* * *

"Tenderheart…Tenderheart!" shouted Wish Bear as she burst into the Hall of Hearts.

"What is it, Wish?" asked Tenderheart.

"It's Swiftheart; she was due back almost an hour ago."

"Are you sure she just didn't forget to check in?"

"Positive, I checked around, no one has seen her anywhere."

Tenderheart looked over to Champ and Lotsaheart.

"Let's form a search party right away and ma-," he was suddenly cut off by Wish.

"But that's not all…her mission…it was near the town that we encountered Trick in!"

"You don't think…"

Wish only nodded.

"Who else is on caring missions in that area?" inquired Tenderheart.

"Just Goodluck, although his mission was a good 20 miles from Swiftheart's."

"Alright I want to form two teams, one to find Swiftheart and one to check on Goodluck."

Tenderheart started giving out orders and organized the two search and rescue parties, unsure of what they could expect.

* * *

Before Swiftheart could even react Trick grabbed her by the paw, thrust his other paw against her forehead and fired off an electric shock at point blank range, instantly rendering her unconscious. Trick let go of her and she fell to the ground. He cocked his head slightly to the right and let out a little smile.

* * *

Just as Goodluck was about to touch the boy on the shoulder he suddenly jerked around and grabbed his paw.

"Wha-what are you doing?" asked Goodluck, a little startled by the reaction.

The boy continued to just stare at him, gripping his paw tightly. Goodluck tried to break free but found he couldn't, this was no boy…it was something else.

The boys eyes suddenly became pale and turned bright white, his hair fell from his head and his skin began growing black fur. The transformation took only a few short seconds. What once looked like a little boy now resembled a Care Bear, with raven colored fur and dead, lifeless white eyes that seemed to stare straight through Goodluck's soul. The creature then began changing again, this time its fur turned to green, a four leaf clover appeared on its belly and his eyes became like Goodluck's. It was like he was staring into a mirror, only the reflection looking back was stolen.

* * *

"There!" shouted Champ, as he noticed a bright flash coming from the woods below them. The search party steered their cloud cars towards the flash and rushed in. Champ saw them first, Swiftheart was lying on the ground and Trick was standing over her, his arm outstretched, ready to blast her. Champ wasted no time and put the cloud car into a free fall. It dropped about 200 feet before he reengaged the engine at the last second, just a few feet off the ground. He immediately jumped out and ran towards Trick, with the other bears close behind. Trick retreated the minute he saw Champ coming towards him; he jumped into the thick underbrush and seemed to disappear without a trace. Champ moved quickly over to Swiftheart to see if she was alright.

"Is she hurt?" asked Friend Bear as she ran over to the two with Secret Bear trailing behind her.

"No, she's alright, but she's been knocked unconscious."

"Where did Trick go?"

"I don't know; he ran into the bushes as soon as he saw me coming, he could still be nearby though."

"Should we retreat?"

Champ nodded.

* * *

They brought Swiftheart back to Care-a-lot and Champ went to the hall of hearts to check in with Tenderheart.

"Swiftheart is alright, Friend Bear and Secret Bear are looking after her, she got a nasty jolt to the head though, knocked her unconscious," Champ reported.

"I'm assuming because of Trick?" Tenderheart asked.

Champ nodded and said, "When we found Swiftheart, it was strange, he didn't attempt to attack us at all, ran off as soon as he saw us."

"He may have learned from his last encounter, choosing to go after individual targets, we should start assigning multiple bears to each caring mission."

"That'll make it harder to get the level of caring back up…although I suppose we don't have much choice. Any word about Goodluck?"

"I'm afraid not, they haven't been able to find him, what's more, the little boy who was supposedly lost, Wish says she lost track of his parents shortly after Goodluck left and she never saw the little boy come out of the woods, nor Goodluck for that matter."

"Have they searched the woods?"

"Twice already and I was planning on sending out another couple of search teams."

"I'd like to join them."

Tenderheart nodded as Love-a-lot came into the room and walked up to Tenderheart with a concerned look on her face.

"What's wrong?" asked Tenderheart.

She first looked at Tenderheart and then glanced for a second at Champ.

"I um…I'd like to talk to you privately if you have a minute," she said as she blushed a little.

Champ gave a little a smile and said, "I'll leave you two alone, and don't worry, I'll find Goodluck, I promise!" he said as he took his leave.

"Tenderheart…"

"What is it, Love?" he asked as he took her paw in his.

"It's…it's Crystal, I went to Records and Research Building to check in on her like you asked but I couldn't find her anywhere…"

"It's alright, I'm sure she just took a break or someth-," she suddenly cut him off as she squeezed his paw a little.

"NO…she…the computer…"

Love-a-lot really looked worried now and Tenderheart felt her trembling.

"What's happened?"

"On the computer…she accessed the log entries, YOUR log entries…"

"You mean?"

But Love-a-lot didn't need to answer; Tenderheart could see it in her eyes and suddenly understood why she was so upset. Things had suddenly become much more complicated.


	9. Chapter 9

"Alright, I'm going to leave Braveheart in charge while you and I go search for Crystal, it'll be better if its just the two of us, we don't want to scare her any more than she already is," Tenderheart decided.

"What'll we tell her though?" Love-a-lot asked.

"We'll have to tell the truth…all of it. At this point that's all we can do."

Tenderheart looked at Love-a-lot with saddened eyes and it hurt her to think of how much he must be blaming himself.

"It's not your fault you know."

"I'd like to believe that, but the fact is I lied to her and I told everyone else to do the same…practically ordered it," he said with a hint of shame in his voice.

"I believe it was the right decision to make…we all do. If her body and memory can't be restored, then she is who she is. Despite what any of us said or will say, her emotions are hers. We were trying to save her from pain…you can call that lying if you want, but some truths are better left unknown."

"What if it was me, though?"

Love-a-lot gave Tenderheart a confused look.

"What if I lost all my memories…of you…of us? Wouldn't you want me to remember, even if those memories brought about pain?"

Love-a-lot gave Tenderheart a peck on the cheek and shook her head.

"Our feelings are what's important, we can always make new memories, I would rather not dwell on how things could have been, but rather work on how they could be. There's no sense living in a painful past and that's what we need to help Crystal understand."

Tenderheart shed a tear and embraced Love-a-lot.

"I'm really glad you're here with me now…I don't know what I'd do without you," he whispered in her ear.

"You'd do alright without me, because a part of me will always be with you," she whispered back.

* * *

Kristy lay on her bed clutching onto a pillow and day dreaming. Her mind wandered from thought to thought as she looked dreamily out the window at the reddish orange sunset. The colors reminded her of Derrick, which brought back thoughts of her childhood. She used to have so little self esteem, always thought of herself as not being good enough. Because of her experiences with the Care Bears and Darkheart, that all changed. She pondered for a bit what her life would be like now if it all hadn't happened.

She let out a sigh and flopped over on her back, letting her long brown hair spill over the edge of the bed as she looked up at the ceiling, now thinking about Derrick, about their future. She couldn't imagine being with anyone else, he made her feel complete…whole.

"I wonder if he'll ask me to marry him…I wonder if we'll have kids…I wonder…," she trailed off. She started to feel a bit melancholy and after a bit noticed the light in the room had gotten much darker. The sun is going down she thought.

"It'll be dark soon," she said pensively.

* * *

Friend Bear giggled and said, "No Secret, I don't think crowing like a rooster will make Swiftheart wake up any faster," as Secret pantomimed the movements of the barnyard animal.

Secret stopped and gave Friend a sad face.

"She'll be alright, she just needs to rest."

Secret then went over to Friend and started whispering in her ear.

"I'm not sure what's going to happen if they find Trick, he's proven to be pretty malicious…I suppose Tenderheart will probably try and seal his magic, but even then he might still pose a significant danger," she answered her silent partner.

Secret paused for a moment as he looked upwards with his paw on this chin, then gave a look of excitement and discovery, after which he gave himself a big hug and swayed back and forth a bit.

Friend giggled again and responded, "No Secret, I don't think giving him a big hug is going to solve the problem, but it is a nice sentiment."

Swiftheart stirred a bit.

"Let's leave her alone to get some rest for now," Friend whispered as they headed out of the room and turned off the lights.

* * *

Elsewhere in Care-a-lot Grumpy and Brightheart were working tirelessly on the Caring Shield. The shield was powered by three large artificially created caring crystals. Caring crystals exist naturally in certain magical realms, like in the Forest of Feelings, but are normally small in size and the energy isn't entirely pure.

"I think we've almost got it!" exclaimed Brightheart, pulling himself out from underneath a control panel.

"Yeah, assuming it doesn't blow up or something," Grumpy replied.

"That's your problem Grumpy; you're always looking at the negative."

"Humph, somebody has to…besides, there's not a whole lot to be positive about at the moment anyway," Grumpy replied as he pulled out a fried control crystal.

"Geez, that's the fourth one," Brightheart complained.

"There's too much power, it's generating a lot of feedback and overloading the control crystals."

"We should be able to solve it by putting in power limiters on all the primary conduits, won't take too long to add them…couple hours."

"I'll go and get some," Grumpy sighed as he started towards the door.

"Hey Grumpy."

"What is it now?"

"You should go talk to her…tell her how you feel."

Grumpy was caught a little off guard by the remark and couldn't think of a response so he just gave a "humph" and walked out the door.

* * *

"Who created it is not as important as whose going to stop it," Noheart told Derrick.

Derrick just looked at the old wizard in contempt and started to walk off.

"Forget it, you created it, you deal with it."

Noheart could see it was going to take more to get him to come around.

"Will you still feel that way when it comes through your town…when it destroys lives…what about your little girlfriend, what if it destroys her?"

Derrick stopped walking off but didn't turn around.

"How will you fight him? In your present state he would mow you down like a thin blade of grass…you and all your little friends too. All I'm offering is to show you how to fight him, nothing more than that, no tricks."

Derrick finally turned around.

"And just how do I fight him? How do I bring out the evil within me without letting it consume me?"

* * *

Grumpy was making his way back from the storage building and kept thinking about what Brightheart had said. It wasn't that he was terribly shy or anything. Part of him thought it was because he believed that if she didn't feel the same way that it might hurt her in some way, because it might ruin their friendship. But another part of him felt that the possibility was better than rejection, that if she didn't share the feelings he had for her that it would simply mean an end to hope. In a sense, not knowing was better than knowing he thought to himself.

"But…if she does share the feelings I have for her…" he trailed off as he suddenly saw Swiftheart off in the distance.

"I wonder where she's going?" Grumpy said aloud.

* * *

Over in the Hall of Hearts Braveheart was taking charge in Tenderheart's absence.

"Cheer Bear, I'm leaving you in command of the Hall of Hearts while Playfulheart, Laugh-a-lot and I will patrol the outer perimeter of Care-a-lot until we can get the caring shield up and running."

"Uh…right!" responded Cheer, trying to sound enthusiastic.

"Wish Bear, you'll provide Cheer Bear with backup."

"Um…backup…but shouldn't I be on look ou-," Wish was cut off by Braveheart.

"And while we're patroling the perimiter I want Harmony Bear, Loyalheart and Share Bear to make rounds through Care-a-lot looking for any suspicious activity."

"Suspicious activity?" questioned Share, who was ignored by Braveheart as he continued on.

"And if you spot anything out of the ordinary fall back to the Hall of Hearts where we'll regroup and make a unified stand!"

"I don't think he's listening at all," Harmony whispered to Share as they all stared in disbelief at Braveheart who was completely self-absorbed and lost in his own little world as he continued on.

"Alright then, we all know our assignments…CHARGE!" he yelled at the top of his lungs as he pointed his finger up at the sky. This in turn sent them all into a frenzied panic, half tripping over each other to try and carry out Braveheart's seemingly aimless orders.


	10. Chapter 10

"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I recall baking a very suspicious looking pie over in my recital hall earlier that I think we should investigate immediately," Harmony said, mocking Braveheart's orders.

"What sort of pie was it?" asked Loyalheart, who suddenly looked very excited.

"It was an apple pie," Harmony explained.

"Apple you say? Why I can't think of a more suspicious flavor than that," Share added.

"I think it would be a terrible shame if we didn't follow up on this lead," Loyalheart continued.

"Well it's decided then; we should all go to my recital hall and investigate ourselves the pie!" Harmony giggled as they headed off.

* * *

Wish was lying on the Hall of Hearts table looking up at the ceiling dreamily while Cheer was slumped over in one of the chairs looking bored.

"I wish Tenderheart would get back," Wish sighed.

"I command that Tenderheart get back," Cheer replied apathetically as she closed her eyes, tired and bored. A few moments passed.

"Did it work?" Cheer finally asked, opening one of her eyes.

Wish rolled her head to the side, looked at Cheer and said, "Nope."

"Well then I command we go eat ice cream."

"Oooh, ice cream!" Wish exclaimed as she sat up.

Just then they heard a sound like the main doors opening up a little. Wish looked at Cheer, a little surprised.

"You didn't ACTUALLY wish for Tenderheart to come back, did you?" asked Cheer.

"Um…I don't think I did."

"Well if it's not Tenderheart…"

"Who is it?" Wish finished Cheer's sentence.

* * *

Harmony, Share and Loyalheart were lying about on huge, oversized pillows, up near the front of the main stage of the recital hall. The hall itself was enormous, two stories high, including a balcony, a large main stage and two smaller stages off to the sides. Behind the stages was a prop room, various dressing rooms, a kitchen and a dormitory (used when Harmony would hold all night practice sessions with some of the others, often times just for fun). The ceiling of the recital hall was made entirely of stained glass, with multiple layers, so throughout the day the sun would shine through the layers at different angles, creating multiple, changing patterns of colored light.

"That certainly was a suspicious pie," said Loyalheart as he patted his stomach.

"I concur, it's good that we investigated it, you can never be _too_ sure about apple pies after all," Harmony added as they all laughed together.

They were all relaxing and enjoying the quiet, warmly lit ambiance of the hall when suddenly the front doors opened and in walked Swiftheart.

* * *

Suddenly Goodluck walked into the room, much to the surprise of Wish and Cheer.

"Goodluck!" exclaimed Wish.

"We were so worried abo-," Wish was cut short as Goodluck suddenly charged his tummy symbol and fired it straight at Wish. She barely dodged the attack, rolling off behind the table where Cheer joined her.

"What the heck is he doing!?" demanded Cheer to Wish.

Wish stared at Cheer for a moment with a puzzled look on her face and then shouted out, "Cheer wants to know what the heck are you doing, Goodluck!"

He replied by firing another stare in their direction which blasted one of the chairs to pieces. Wish and Cheer looked at each other, quite startled and then ran into the closest room where they slammed and locked the door behind them.

"Uh…is that really Goodluck?" Wish asked aloud.

"I don't think it is. I have a bad feeling about this."

Just then Goodluck fired another stare that blasted straight through the door.

"We need to stop him!" Cheer commanded.

"Right!" exclaimed Wish as they both stopped hiding and took offensive stances.

Goodluck burst through the doors, ready to fire again, but was countered by Wish and Cheer who both fired first. The blast knocked him out of the room and against the Hall of Hearts table. What looked like Goodluck phased for a moment and that's when they saw Trick's creation, Morph.

"Okay, that is DEFINETLY not Goodluck," Cheer stated.

Wish nodded in agreement as the creature, now fully phased back into the form of Goodluck got up and shot towards the door.

"He's getting away, we have to stop him!" shouted Cheer.

"I know how we can stop him!" Wish said as she powered up her tummy symbol, closed her eyes and began to concentrate. "I wish the door was locked!" she shouted.

The front doors slammed shut and they could hear the doors locking.

"It worked!" exclaimed Cheer.

But Morph just kept running towards the door as his tummy symbol lit up.

"Is he really going to try using a stare against the main doors?" questioned Wish.

"Well if he is, he's gonna be in for a surprise, those doors are blast resistant."

Morph's tummy symbol stopped glowing and he simply held out his paw in front of him. He ran straight into the door and it opened right up without any resistance.

"What?! The lock broke!" cried Wish

"He must have Goodluck's power too, not just his appearance," explained Cheer, sounding somewhat annoyed. "Come on, let's go after him!"

"I'll stop him this time!" Cheer said in a determined tone.

* * *

"Swiftheart! You woke up! Would you like to investigate some suspicious pie with us?" Share shouted out.

Swiftheart didn't respond though, but started walking down the long isle way towards them.

"That is Swiftheart, isn't it?" questioned Share.

"Powder blue...long ears…big heart with wings on her tummy…yeah it looks like Swiftheart," Loyalheart chuckled.

"Hey Swifty, where did you leave Friend and Secret?" Harmony shouted.

Still Swiftheart didn't reply, but kept walking towards them. She was about a third of the way down the isle at this point.

"Hrmmm…that's weird, how come she's so quiet and reserved?" Share questioned aloud.

"Maybe that shock Trick gave her scrambled her memory or something," Harmony purposed.

Loyalheart sniffed for a moment at the air towards Swiftheart, who was now about halfway towards them.

"What is it, Loyalheart?" asked Share.

"Something isn't right," he replied as he powered up his tummy symbol for a brief moment.

Loyalheart suddenly jumped to his feet and took a defensive stance as Swiftheart suddenly stopped walking towards the three.

"What is it, what's going on?" asked a confused and startled Harmony as she and Share got to their feet and looked at Loyalheart in concern.

"That's not Swiftheart," Loyalheart growled.

* * *

They were chasing him across Care-a-lot now, moving farther and farther from the Hall of Hearts. Cheer powered up her tummy symbol and suddenly rainbow colored bands of light shot out of her tummy at Morph. The bands encircled him and before long had him completely tangled up as they tied themselves around his body.

"Good job!" shouted Wish.

"Those bands are tied tight, he won't be able to esca-," she was cut short as Morph unexpectedly pulled free from the bands and started running again.

"Hey! My rainbow ribbons! How did he get loose?!" questioned Cheer, quite frustrated.

"He must have used Goodluck's power again." Wish said as they once again started to give chase.

* * *

"If that's not Swiftheart then who is it?" questioned Share.

"It's something evil, I used my power to sense where its loyalties lie…and it's not with us."

Share and Harmony then joined Loyalheart in defensive positions against the fake Swiftheart. Still quite a distance away from them, it cocked its head to the side and then exploded at them at hypersonic speed. The attack was so quick it blasted the three apart as they were tossed about like rag dolls. Loyalheart and Share were both thrown into the public seating area while Harmony was blown into the orchestra section directly in front of the stage.

The fake Swiftheart flew about the room for a bit and finally stopped on the main stage.

"Let's run for it!" yelled Loyalheart

All three made it to their feet and started running towards the entrance, but before they could even get within 20 feet the fake Swiftheart was already there. They all quickly stopped in their tracks, but before they could even think of how to move next the fake Swiftheart started speeding back and forth across the room in front of them so fast all they could see was a bluish blur, then suddenly the bluish blur had a bright glow to it, followed shortly by a giant wave of energy that hit them with such violent force that all three were thrown clear across the room and up onto the main stage. They probably would have been hurt severely if it hadn't been for the closed curtain that caught them and broke their fall.

"What are we going to do!" cried Share.

"I-its too fast to fight against, there's no time to counter," Loyalheart responded as he tried to get to his feet.

The fake Swiftheart was now stopped again near the entrance. It cocked its head again and then began running in circles at hypersonic speed.

"What's it doing now?" Harmony wondered aloud.

Faster and faster it circled until the bluish blur unexpectedly erupted into a funnel cloud that began to tear about the room.

"No way…that's unreal!" Loyalheart exclaimed.

"Oh no, it's starting to come towards us!" screamed Share.

Harmony suddenly got an idea.

"Everybody, I have a plan, blast the curtain down, RIGHT NOW!" she yelled.

The two wasted no time as they fired stares across the top of the curtain. The thick, heavy fabric flew to the floor after it was cut free. The cyclone was getting closer and closer and they all started to feel it sucking them towards it.

"What now?" asked Loyalheart.

"We need to get underneath the curtain!" Harmony commanded.

"I don't think that's going to stop it!" Loyalheart exclaimed, somewhat skeptical as Share was starting to look really worried.

"Just trust me!" Harmony cried.

"Okay, we're trusting you," Loyalheart said hesitantly.

The cyclone was starting to rip through the orchestral section now, in just a few more seconds the violent fury would be on them and there would be no escape.

* * *

"Where is he going?" Wish wondered aloud, as they were now reaching the outskirts of Care-a-lot.

"Yeah, why is he running away?" Cheer affirmed.

"It's almost like he's _trying_ to get us away from Care-a-lot."

Cheer and Wish suddenly looked at each other in alarm.

"The alarm! We didn't sound the caring alarm before we ran after him and nobody is left to activate it."

"If Trick is in Care-a-lot…"

"We have to stop this copy cat, tummy symbol stealing thief right now!"

Wish nodded and said, "I got it!"

* * *

The three draped the fallen curtain over themselves tightly.

"Okay, now what?" Loyalheart screamed, barely able to even hear his own voice over the howling wind being generated by the fake Swiftheart cyclone of destruction.

"Now I'm going to blow the ceiling!" Harmony screamed back.

"You're going to WHA-," Share started to scream just as Harmony powered up her tummy symbol. In an instant an incredibly high pitched, piercing scream of sound sliced through the room and hammered into the ceiling with such a destructive force it shattered every piece of every layer of the tempered glass ceiling.

* * *

Wish Bear's tummy symbol lit up as she closed her eyes again and said, "I wish he couldn't move!"

Suddenly there was a loud thunderous boom as the entire cloud bank the three were on broke to pieces. Wish opened her eyes just as she was about to run off the edge of the cloud section she was on. She tried to stop herself, but slipped right off the edge. Cheer saw what was about to happen the moment before Wish was about to fall and made a running dive towards her. She hit the ground and slid across to the edge of the cloud, just barely grabbing Wish's paw before she could plummet to her death.

"Whew, that was really a close one!" Cheer exclaimed as she pulled Wish up onto the cloud section that was left.

"You're telling me! I thought I was gonna die!" Wish cried out, close to tears and quite upset over the whole thing.

"Well, I guess the lesson here is to be careful what you wish for. Look," said Cheer as she pointed towards Morph.

"He's trapped on a cloud section, he can't move!"

Cheer didn't hesitate and immediately powered up her tummy symbol. More of the rainbow light bands from before came shooting out from her tummy. This time they flew all around Morph, but didn't try to wrap him up. Instead the bands circled around and around until they had formed a ball of rainbow light all around him.

"He _won't_ be getting out of that," stated Cheer, very sternly.

But Morph just cocked his head to the side as his tummy symbol lit up for a moment, then died out, then lit up again, this time much more intensely than they had seen before.

"What's he doing?" asked Wish.

"He's used Goodluck's power to boost his staring energy, it looks like he's going to try and break out."

Wish suddenly looked alarmed.

"But that wouldn't be good luck at all, what if it really is Goodlu-," but she was cut short by Cheer.

"If it is…then he won't try it."

Morph suddenly let out an unbelievably powerful Care Bear stare, but it didn't break through the rainbow light bands. Instead, the bands reflected, magnified and accelerated the energy back. The inside of the ball became a violent swirl of pure energy that instantly ripped through Morph like a paper doll, basting him into nothingness before the energy threshold reached critical mass and the ball of energy detonated with such incredible force that all of Care-a-lot shook from the explosive concussion.

* * *

Share Bear was just screaming now, overwhelmed with fear and anxiety. The three huddled together tightly underneath the curtain as the ceiling exploded above them. Thousands of tiny shards of glass were instantly sucked into the vortex of the cyclone which suddenly broke apart. The howling wind stopped and the room quieted. All the three could hear underneath their cover was a loud crash as something fell from the air hard against the ground followed by thousands of pieces of glass chiming and tinkling as they hit the ground.

Harmony pulled back the curtain and they saw what had happened. The ceiling was now completely gone and there was damage and destruction all through the recital hall. Splintered and broken chairs mixed with colored shards of glass littered the floor. It didn't take long to spot the fake Swiftheart. It was thrown towards the middle of the room and was covered in slivers and fragments of glass that stuck into it from every angle. It no longer looked completely like Swiftheart though now. Parts of it where the glass had stabbed in deeply had reverted back into their natural state…it was Trick's creation again, Morph. The mish mosh, deformed looking mess of Swiftheart and Morph didn't cry out in pain, but just stood hunched over, apparently not able to move. It shuffled for a bit, like it was trying to stand up straight but then it suddenly stopped moving altogether and just sat there for a moment; after which is began to loose coherency and started oozing into a large black puddle on the floor.

"It's melting," whispered Harmony.

"Ding dong, oh what a…whirl," Loyalheart whispered back as the three of them lay there underneath the curtain, completely stunned by the whole event.


	11. Chapter 11

Brightheart had his head buried in machinery, busy working on the Caring Shield when he heard Grumpy come in.

"Good timing, Grumpy, I'm ready to put in the power limiters and then we can fire it up for a test run!"

Brightheart stuck out his paw from the machine as Grumpy handed him the components. He took them and went to work installing them. As Brightheart toiled away Grumpy leaned up against the control consol and seemed to be lost in thought.

"You know…Grumpy…," Brightheart started as he worked diligently.

"I really do think you should tell her how you feel. You said earlier that she didn't seem happy, but did it occur to you that maybe what was making her unhappy was the fact that you _weren't_ talking to her about it?" Brightheart continued.

Grumpy simply replied with a, "humph".

* * *

"March one, two, three, four! March one, two, three four!" Braveheart chanted as he marched towards the watch tower with Playfulheart and Laugh-a-lot in tow.

After a while Playfulheart became bored and so he started mocking Braveheart behind his back, much to the delight of Laugh-a-lot who started getting the giggles. Playfulheart began marching backwards, over exaggerating his movements and lip synching to Braveheart's voice.

* * *

Brightheart continued to work on installing the power limiters as Grumpy continued to look, well, grumpy.

"Well…do as you like then. I guess…can you hand me the wrench? Thanks. I guess…I can understand your reluctance…its not like I have…where's the screwdriver? Anyway, it's not like I have any troubles like that…so I guess maybe you think I don't know what I'm talking about."

Grumpy again replied with a, "humph".

* * *

Braveheart finally noticed what Playfulheart was doing and stopped marching, but continued chanting until Playfulheart bumped into him. He turned around with a bit of a shock.

"Oh uh…sorry Braveheart, I was just…checking our six!" Playfulheart tried to explain as Laugh-a-lot began giggling even more than before.

"This is serious Playfulheart, there's no time for jokes. We could be under attack at any moment, we must be prepared!" Braveheart commanded.

"Prepared for boredom," Playfulheart quipped back as Laugh-a-lot let out a chortle.

"You might think its funny now, but I bet if Noheart shows up you won't be laughing!"

"Uh…I thought we were worried about that Trick guy?"

"Ha! That's just what Noheart _wants_ us to think."

"It is?"

* * *

Brightheart was getting close to finishing the work on the caring shield.

"…okay, maybe that's not entirely true. But with Crystal and me…activate the primary control consol."

Grumpy activated the control consol.

"Well…I couldn't tell her how I felt even if I wanted to…you should consider yourself lucky…at least your interests are…normal, you know?"

Grumpy again replied with a, "humph".

* * *

Braveheart gave Playfulheart a nod and was feeling quite proud of himself as he explained, "You see Playfulheart, Trick is really Beastly in disguise and it's all just a distraction to try and lure us away from Care-a-lot so he can plan a sneak attack."

Laugh-a-lot cocked her head to the side in confusion as Playfulheart gave Braveheart a blank stare.

"You see, you're stunned by my incredible deductive logic."

"Oh…it's incredible all right," Playfulheart said sarcastically as Laugh-a-lot began giggling.

* * *

Brightheart started to sense that something was a bit off. He finished up installing the last of the power limiters and then pulled himself out from the machine.

"Whew, glad that's done, we should test it now!"

Grumpy just gave Brightheart a sour look.

"Are you feeling alright Grumpy?"

Grumpy just gave a, "humph".

At this point Brightheart knew something was wrong, but couldn't quite put his paw on it.

"Okay let's try it out."

Brightheart flipped a few switches and punched a few buttons. The machine began to hum as it powered up. The three large caring crystals started spinning in their chambers as they began to give off a bright aura of light and the room got louder with the surge of energy.

"Well it's not overloading anymore, that's certainly an improvement," Brightheart noted.

Once the machine reached full power a green colored button lit up. On the button was written the word "engage".

"Here goes nothing!" Brightheart exclaimed.

* * *

Braveheart was pacing back and forth across the watch tower as Playfulheart and Laugh-a-lot were both relaxed and looking bored. They didn't even realize Trick was walking right up to the main gates though until he was practically right under their noses.

"Beastly! Ha, I knew it was you all along, you can't fool me!" Braveheart yelled out.

"Who are you supposed to be?" Trick asked.

"Don't play dumb with me, Beastly, I Braveheart Lion saw _right_ through your disguise."

"Uh, Braveheart, I don't thi-," Playfulheart tried to tell Braveheart but was interrupted by Trick.

"Look, Bumbles, sorry if I sound a bit rude, but I really don't have time for you," stated Trick as he pointed his paw towards the main gates.

Within seconds a giant bolt of lightning let loose from Trick's outstretched paw and the gate was blown to pieces.

"Hey! You can't do that! Nobody blows up a gate when _I'm_ on duty!" Braveheart yelled out, now leaning over the edge of the watch tower and shaking his fist at Trick. He probably would have fell right over the edge too if it hadn't been for Laugh-a-lot who grabbed his tail and pulled him back.

Trick turned his head up at Braveheart and gave him a look of disdain and then looked towards Playfulheart.

"If you don't shut your little friend up I'm going to have him stuffed and mounted on my wall," Trick said in mean, sneering tone.

This comment didn't sit very well with either Playfulheart or Laugh-a-lot who suddenly looked a lot more serious than normal. Braveheart was still feeling a bit clueless, but was no longer shouting commands.

"Hey look over there!" Playfulheart shouted as he powered up his tummy symbol and pointed behind Trick.

"So I guess they left all the rejects in char-," Trick was suddenly startled by what sounded like firecrackers going off behind him. He jerked around and fired off several random volleys of lighting strikes. As he did both Playfulheart and Laugh-a-lot fired stares at him, blasting him a good 10 feet back and knocking him to the ground. Braveheart just looked on and seemed as startled as Trick.

* * *

Brightheart pushed the green colored button, but nothing happened. The machine continued to hum away at full power, but the shield wouldn't engage.

"Why is not engaging?" Brightheart wondered aloud.

Grumpy said nothing as Brightheart opened one of the panels on the control consol. That's when he noticed it.

"Is this some kind of a joke, Grumpy? Where is the primary control crystal?"

Brightheart didn't notice Grumpy powering up his tummy symbol as he was looking inside the consol because of all the noise coming from the caring shield. As soon as Brightheart turned his head towards Grumpy it was already too late to dodge. Grumpy fired a stare at him point blank and the blast knocked Brightheart right off the platform they were on into one of the far walls. After he hit the wall he fell downward onto one of the secondary level platforms. He lay there for a second recoiling from the pain, looking down through the grated platform and took a brief moment to be thankful he hadn't fallen all the way down to the base level.

He recovered quickly and got to his feet just as Grumpy shot another stare at him, this time missing him by just a few inches. Brightheart then powered up his tummy symbol and began firing a few shots back as they both took cover. Brightheart knew he couldn't be reckless; one poorly aimed stare might hit one of the caring crystal chambers and would result in a massive explosion; which could destroy the entire Caring Shield. Luckily his cover was well out of the range of Grumpy, or whatever it was that looked like Grumpy, Brightheart wasn't sure.

* * *

Trick slowly got to his feet, took a defensive posture and looked quite annoyed.

"Hey Sparky, how do you like my fireworks? Maybe you should _lighten_ up a little!" Playfulheart mocked as he began laughing.

This of course sent Laugh-a-lot into a laughing fit and even Braveheart started chuckling. Trick began laughing too. They all seemed to be really enjoying the moment when Trick's laughter began to get louder and louder, until it became a screaming laughter and the others nervously quieted down, not sure what he was going to do next. Trick then stopped laughing and screamed, "I'M GOING TO DESTROY EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU!"

It was then that the others noticed how dark it had gotten as storm clouds rolled in quickly and covered the whole of Care-a-lot. The threatening sky loomed over them and they could hear rumbling from overhead as Trick continued to laugh to himself over it.

* * *

Grumpy fired a stare, but it wasn't at Brightheart. He shot at one of the metal support beams right over where Brightheart was taking cover. A giant metal gerter came crashing down as he jumped out of its destructive path only to find himself amidst a volley of stares from Grumpy. He rolled out of the blasts and dove for cover behind a large console.

Brightheart sat there more a moment, catching his breath. An idea suddenly struck him. He noticed as he was diving for cover that Grumpy was standing right next to one of the primary power relays and that he might be able to overload it from the control consol he was now hiding behind. He wasted no time opening up the consoles cover and began to work.

* * *

"Whatever he's doing, we have to stop him!" Braveheart commanded, somewhat more lucid than before.

"Let's hit him with another stare!" Playfulheart suggested.

Braveheart and Laugh-a-lot nodded as they all took aim, powered up their tummy symbols and fire at Trick. The energy blast was right on target, but was unexpectedly blocked by some kind of barrier that seemed to encircle Trick.

"It didn't work!" cried Playfulheart.

More thunderous rumbling could be heard overhead as the nightmarish cloud continued to grow. Trick was still laughing to himself, but now seemed to be off in a world of his own, not paying any attention to the others. It was then that Grumpy showed up.

* * *

Grumpy heard a strange high pitched humming sound. He turned around and cocked his head at the power relay just as it exploded, blasting him off the platform all the way down to the base level. He slammed into the ground hard and as he did his fur suddenly turned to black, his eyes lost their color and his tummy symbol washed away. It was Trick's creation again, Morph.

Brightheart looked over the edge of the railing down at the creature, not quite sure what to make of it all. He rushed down the metal stairs and then slowly walked over to it.

"What is it?" Brightheart asked aloud as he edged closer.

He then saw the missing control crystal in Morph's paw and leaned over the seemingly unconscious creature and reached down for the crystal. Suddenly Morph's lifeless dead eyes opened and he shot his paw out, grabbing onto Brightheart. He tried to break free from Morph's grip, but it was firm and unyielding. Within just a few short seconds his fur began to turn purple, a light bulb in the shape of a heart formed on his tummy, and suddenly Brightheart felt as if he was staring into a mirror.

* * *

"Grumpy, what are you doing here?" asked Braveheart.

"There was some kind of creature posing as Swiftheart; it knocked me out when I was getting some parts for the caring shield. When I came to it was gone so I ran over to the Hall of Hearts, but no one was there. So then I came here and found you guys. What's going on?"

"Wasn't Cheer or Wish at the Hall of Hearts?" asked Playfulheart.

Grumpy shook his head and said, "I didn't find anyone, but it looked like there was some kind of a fight, the main doors were open and there was some damage inside."

"Well we can't go looking for them now, we've got problems of our own," Braveheart said as he motioned towards Trick.

"I saw you guys try a stare on him, he must be generating some kind of electrostatic energy field…but if he's building up that kind of energy," Grumpy looked up.

"What is it?" asked Playfulheart.

"Oh no…no it can't be!" Grumpy exclaimed as he reached into the pocked of the coveralls he was wearing and pulled out a walkie-talkie.

* * *

Brightheart snapped out of it and lunged towards Morph's other paw and grabbed the control crystal out of it and then jerked free from his grip. He then started running towards the stairs leading up to the Caring Shields computer core. As he was running he noticed a fire extinguisher on the wall, about 10 feet ahead of him and figured as soon as he was clear of the stairs he'd fire a stare at it, it would displace the oxygen on the ground floor, making it impossible to brea-but Brightheart was too late. Morph, now in the form of Brightheart fired a stare at the extinguisher, which erupted in a huge cloud of white halon smoke and sent Brightheart crashing to the floor as he choked for air. Meanwhile Morph held his breath and ran at full speed towards the stairs, hoping to make it to the top before Brightheart.

Brightheart, gasping for air managed to stumble through the cloud to the stairs and pulled himself up out of the halon mist where the air was breathable. By this time Morph was already on the third tier, guarding the computer core and it didn't take him long to start shooting stares at Brightheart. He got hit twice, the first shot slammed him hard into the guard railing of the 2nd tier and the second shot hit his leg as he ducked for cover behind a console. He was beat up pretty bad at this point, his lungs still burning from the lack of oxygen, his leg was fractured and his magic power was nearly depleted.

"Brightheart! Brightheart can you hear me?!" came a muffled voice.

Brightheart pulled a walkie-talkie out of the left pocket of the cover-alls he was wearing and responded back, "Yeah, I can hear you Grumpy, glad to hear you're alright. I could use some help here, I'm under attack."

"We're sending help over now, but it won't get there in time, we need the caring shield up now! Trick is here, he's done something horrible!"

"What, what is it?"

"He's using his power to form a giant storm cloud over Care-a-lot; he's building up an incredible amount of energy. I think he's going to unleash a massive lightning attack and it's already too late to stop it! We need the shield up!"

"I'm hurt pretty bad, but I'll try and get it up."

"Hurry Brightheart, I don't think there's much time!"

He put the walkie-talkie back in his pocket and then managed to get to his feet.

"How am I going to get past him? It's as if he can think like me. He knows what I'm going to do before I even do it. I have to…I have to do something I wouldn't ever do, something illogical, something spontaneous, something…LIKE THIS!"

He jerked himself out from behind the console and fired a single stare with the last of his magic power.

* * *

"It's in Brightheart's hands now," Grumpy said.

"Shouldn't we go to help him?" asked Braveheart.

"Shouldn't we try and evacuate?" asked Playfulheart.

Grumpy tossed the walkie-talkie to the ground and shook his head in dismay.

"We would never make it to Brightheart in time and even if just us three tried to get away right now it wouldn't matter. If Care-a-lot is destroyed it will destroy us, our magic is tied directly into it. This is end game."

* * *

The stare flew straight past Morph and right into the caring crystal chamber that he was standing next to. It shattered and in an instant one whole section of the third tier was blown to pieces, right along with Morph. The explosion caused shrapnel and sparks to fly all around and two large machines close by erupted in smoke and fire. Several pipes also burst shooting steam through the room as various lights and alarms started to sound.

Brightheart managed to crawl up the stairs with his fractured leg, wincing in pain at every step. Meanwhile from outside he could hear terrible sounds of thunder and knew that if the shield was damaged too much, it would mean the end of Care-a-lot. He finally made it over to the primary control consol and inserted the crystal.

"Please…," he said hopingly as he pushed the green "engage" button.

As soon as it was pressed there was a violent whirring noise and the whole building began to vibrate with energy. This was followed by what sounded like a sonic boom as all of Care-a-lot was suddenly enveloped by a sporadic, red, shimmering energy field. Because of the one destroyed caring crystal the shield was only at 2/3rds power, which left weakened "holes" floating through it. In the next instant there was no sound, only blinding white light as the monstrous thunder cloud above Care-a-lot let loose its fury upon them.


End file.
